Failed 978mHz radio. Replacement recommendations please

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

In spite of being a retired Commercial/CFI avaition nut, I’ve only been a FA ADS-B data source since late summer 2022, and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for me.

I suffered a 978 (orange) radio failure 30-45 days in, and after some testing, FA sent me a replacement.

All was fine until I loaded the FA 8.2 update just before Christmas. Within a few days, data started getting kind of patchy, and suddenly my 978 radio went dark, with no CPU use and no physical heat in the radio.

I contacted FA Tech Support, and so far have received one reply, asking me to ensure that I had the power and data connections properly connected. I thought this was sort of silly, given that the RPi was connected to FA and signed in as well.

Now, Tech doesn’t seem to want to talk about it any longer, so I reckon I’m on my own.

My 978 & 1090 radios are within 1 foot of each other, and environmentals are the same. The 1090 has been a trooper, and keeps grinding away with a daytime average of 165 airplanes per hour and a message rate of over 1k per second.

I would like a recommendation from the folks here as to what replacement radio I can source on my own, and any special settings I may need to get it working properly.

I’ve been looking around, and see some available in the $30-40 range, but would still appreciate a little back up.

Thanks
JSBIRD

2

Try putting more distance between your “radios”, electronic equipment emit spurious signals that may be affecting your equipment. The same for antennas. Even “receive only” antennas give off random frequencies.

I have a flagpole in my front yard, with no antennas or electronic equipment connected to it whatsoever. It emits a FM radio frequency detected with my handheld frequency analyzer. Electronics are a very strange “animal”, that me and most other people are confused by.

Good luck!

KB4ERT

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3

Try swapping the PSU’s and see which has the problem.

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4

I have 3 of these running on different Pi’s. They seem to work well. $35 on Amazon.

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5

I gave it a try…no change.

I have a new radio coming.

Thanks!

6

Yeah, I wish it’d be that easy. That’s the first thing I did, even before contacting TS.

Thanks!

7

Got one coming. Thanks for some solid advice!

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